Moving Forward in Tough Times

Welcome to the second annual Fixes holiday season retrospective! Almost every week, over the past two years, we’ve covered a response to a social problem that’s noteworthy, usually because it’s producing better than expected results. We highlight these “positive deviants” because 1) they’re under-reported; 2) they show society not just what’s going wrong but how it might improve; and 3) they’re inherently interesting, like a good puzzle or whodunit. Because we get more leads than we can cover, we typically focus on initiatives that have a track record, evidence of effectiveness and potential for broader impact.

So, last week, I reached out to three dozen organizations we’ve covered to find out how they had fared during the past year. Even during this difficult economic period, I was struck by how many had augmented their work. It seems that, while we’ve been occupied with the economy, the election and Gangnam Style, some interesting changes have occurred under the radar. Here’s a roundup for 2012:

EDUCATION

On the education front, a number of groups have gained traction addressing this challenge: How can we nurture the social and emotional development of children? Roots of Empathy, which brings moms and babies into thousands of classrooms and builds empathetic capacity among children, expanded its work to Europe and the United States and saw its influence shape educational policies in Canadian provinces. Playworks, which shows schools how to improve recess, underwent a randomized controlled trial, and preliminary results indicate that its play-based program significantly reduces bullying, exclusionary behavior and class conflicts (teachers report that students take 27 percent less time transitioning from recess to learning activities). The Positive Coaching Alliance, which helps coaches teach character-building lessons through youth sports, now reports that it is reaching a million youths. (Check out P.C.A.’s free online e-Talking Points for coaches.)

In the United States, the Nurse-Family Partnership, which pairs vulnerable first-time pregnant women with nurses early in their pregnancies — producing positive long-term health and social outcomes for mothers and children — is now working in 42 states, up from 37. Text4Baby, which sends informational text messages to pregnant women and new moms, has been used by 460,000 women. In one study, 75 percent reported that the messages informed them of medical warning sign they didn’t know about. Health Leads’ work mobilizing student volunteers to address the social conditions underlying illnesses is gradually being integrated into hospital systems, with close to half of its clients in 2012 referred by a healthcare provider or via electronic medical records. After a Health Leads co-founder, Rebecca Onie, gave a TED talk in April, the organization received 545 requests for expansion.

Civic VenturesInez Killingsworth, the president of ESOP in Ohio, which helps homeowners avoid foreclosure.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

Social enterprises are also making headway. First Book, which distributed its 100 millionth book in 2012, saw sales from its deeply discounted Marketplace grow to nearly three million books, aggregated from 45,000 classrooms and reading programs. Root Capital extended $130 million in loans during the year to agricultural businesses employing a quarter of a million small-scale farming families; a third of the funds went to “gender inclusive” businesses that provide livelihoods for 64,000 women. (Targeting resources to women producers is critical to reduce global hunger, notes the Food and Agriculture Organization.)

In the area of economic opportunity, Specialisterne, from Denmark, a company and associated foundation that trains people with autism spectrum disorders and helps them gain employment, has expanded its work to 12 countries, including the United States, where state leaders in Delaware have championed the model. Year Up, a vocational development program that prepares youths from low-income communities for careers in major companies, launched partnerships with Baltimore City Community College and Miami Dade College, as part of a plan to integrate its methodology into the community college system. Alison, the free online job skills training site, reports that its traffic tripled since June, reaching two million visitors per month.

In other areas, the Myelin Repair Foundation opened its own translational medicine center to accelerate the evaluation of potential therapies for multiple sclerosis.Youth Villages continues to see its home-based alternative to residential treatment or foster care gain momentum. The organization expanded to Oregon and Indiana in 2012. And the federal government extended theTitle IV-E Child Welfare Waiver to nine additional states, giving them flexibility to experiment with this approach. The standardized labels being advanced by Recycle Across America are now used in all public schools in Washington, D.C., and San Diego. (San Diego officials hope to save $200,000 in trash hauling costs.)

The “collective impact” educational model, led by the Strive Cradle to Career Network, has spread to 80 communities and five countries, including Malaysia, which aims to institute it at a national level. The 100,000 homes campaign led by Community Solutions, which both Tina and I have reported on, has led to more than 23,000 formerly chronically homeless people receiving housing — including more than 5,000 veterans. LIFT, which mobilizes student volunteers to help vulnerable people obtain social services, grew by more than 20 percent this year. The organization recently conducted a simulation in which middle-class professionals were asked to navigate government systems to obtain housing, employment and other services. (See this video.) It gave participants a deep appreciation for the indignities that poor people experience every day.

A TRIBUTE TO A LEADER

I’d like to end with a note about Inez Killingsworth, the president of ESOP, a Cleveland-headquartered organization that has led the way in Ohio fighting to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. I recently learned that Killingsworth, 74, is undergoing hospice care, in the final stages of cancer, and it led me to reflect on her remarkable journey.

Killingsworth, the daughter of Mississippi sharecroppers, moved to the Union-Miles area of Cleveland in 1959 after she was married. Officially, she was a school janitor. Unofficially, she was the person everybody from the principal to the custodian to the students turned to when they needed help. After she retired, she discovered that she had a knack for community organizing. She began by getting the city to catch the stray dogs that were terrorizing neighborhood children, then she fought for public school improvements, pressured police to close drug houses and sued predatory lenders, while houses around her were being foreclosed and once lively neighborhoods turned to ghost towns.

In recent years, she oversaw the transformation of ESOP into a statewide force that was feared by bankers and public officials. This past year, ESOP successfully advocated for Richard Cordray to be appointed by President Obama as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Last January, when the president was in Cleveland, he paid a visit to the home of William and Endia Eason, an elderly couple who had been victims of predatory lending and been assisted by ESOP. (Endia Eason baked 23 sweet potato pies for the president and his security detail.)

Killingsworth is a no-nonsense fighter who believes in holding powerful people to account. She has a quiet power about her. I met her only once, the night she was given an award. I was moved by her speech and asked if I could keep it. I have the pages in front of me now.

“Every victory we’ve ever had was won through community organizing,” she said. “Listening to the people, bringing them together to recognize there is power in numbers.”

She concluded: “Tonight I say to all of you: Let’s fight back and move forward!”